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austin tx homes for sale: Austin TX Real Estate Market - Supply & Demand - Inventory down 22.62% - 05/22/12 04:05 PM
The standard question I'm asked day in and day out is "How's the market?," and in Austin TX, the real estate market is heated up!! I've been so busy that my market reports have been put on hold, and I apologize to all my readers for getting a little behind. Just last week, I had 2 closings with happy buyers, submitted 3 offers, and got 2 of them executed (we're still negotiating the third offer). Busy busy!Last year, 2011, the Austin TX market was going pretty strong, picking up from a slower 2010. Looking back, there were 11,315 active listings on … (6 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: 8308 Grayledge Dr- Austin TX - 78753 - House for Sale - Heritage Hills - 05/22/12 07:12 AM
Jump into your new POOL this summer! Quiet and mature neighborhood of Heritage Hills with this great opportunity close to I-35 and 183.
All big-ticket items have been updated during recent years including the roof, water heater, and AC. Other updates include new tile floors (2012), some fresh paint (2012), new gutters (2012), newer appliances, fence, toilet, shower, etc... The pool was resurfaced in 2010.
There are 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 car garage, 3 Living areas that include a Formal area with Gas log Fireplace, a Sunroom, and a large Gameroom.
If you like trees and gardening, this … (4 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Austin TX Ranked #2 - Best Cities to Buy a Home Right Now - Forbes - 04/17/12 06:56 AM
Forbes has another new list and Austin TX is ranked #2 for The Best Cities to Buy a Home Right Now. It's so true! Our Austin Real Estate Market is really pumped up. In many areas, there are multiple offers on most homes, in all different price points. Just this month, I had a multiple offer on a house listed at $112,000 but also on $485,000. The one at $485k had 40 offers! I have one right now that is listed right below $250k and there are 9 offers. We have to submit the multiple offer addendum today to stay in … (7 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Austin Ranks #2 for Fastest Growing US Metro Areas - 04/06/12 10:22 AM
Austin TX ranks #2 for the top 5 Fastest Growing US Metro areas, by percentage. This includes the entire Austin area and it's suburbs and surrounding areas of Round Rock down to San Marcos. To me, San Marcos is not part of Austin, but the census has included it. It's all of Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, and Caldwell Counties. What does this mean for the Austin area? It means Austin added 67,230 people in a 15 month period from when the last census was done through July 2011. That's 4482 people a month! No, not everyone is moving here from other … (3 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Senna Hills Homes for Sale - Austin TX - 30% Sales Increase for 2011 - 01/19/12 11:47 AM
Austin TX Real Estate is doing well, and there is no exception in Senna Hills, just West of Austin. Senna Hills is in Travis County, outside any city limits, and feeds into the Exemplary schools of Eanes ISD.
Back in September 2011, I wrote a Market Report for Senna Hills that analyzed the year to date activity up to that time and compared it to 2010. The market report below is going to analyze all of 2011 with all of 2010, and you'll be happily surprised with the results. Here are two pie graphs showing the differences in the Days on … (14 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Interest Rates Effect How Much Home You Can Afford - 12/30/11 07:03 PM
Just how low are rates right now? They are so low, you can buy more house today with the lowest payments ever in history! I was talking with one of my buyers a couple of days ago. She's very concerned about mortgage payment. We've had the same discussion three times, and we go in circles. She's thinking about settling for a house today that is very cheap, and then getting a "better" house in 3-5 years. Each time it's, "Rates are below 4% today. We don't know what rates will do in 3-5 years. What if you are only able to … (12 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: When Do You Meet Your Buyers - At the Closing Table - 11/14/11 04:53 PM
When do you normally meet your buyers for the first time? Is it (A) at a pre-qualification interview when you want to know what they're looking for and their time frame? Is it (B) after they've spoken with a mortgage person to get pre-approved? Is it (C) at the closing table?
A couple of weeks ago, I met my buyers for the very first time at the closing table! No, they were not out of town buyers, as I've worked with those kinds of buyers before and buying a house without seeing it is not a strange situation. This particular situation … (50 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: House Sizes Are Not Bigger in Texas... Ranked 5th in Size - 11/01/11 08:36 PM
Not everything is bigger in Texas... Inman News published a story this morning with the top ten states with the largest houses, and Texas was only Fifth on the list! That means there are 4 other states that feel it's better to be bigger.Just a reminder that these are "Median" numbers and not "Average" numbers, so they do skew information a little. For Texas, it says the Median size home is 2031 sqft while the Median for all of the U.S. is a mere 1761 sqft. Personally, I feel that the U.S. number is skewed in the fact that places with … (13 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Donna Harris - Austin Tx Real Estate Agent and REALTOR® - 10/31/11 03:11 PM
What do you do? is probably one of the most asked questions of people when they meet. Many times it's just a few words of description, and then a smile and nod. Not many people elaborate on their jobs. However, whenever I tell someone I'm in real estate, all of a sudden, people find their voice.
How's the market? Rates are low? Is this a good time to sell/buy?
Call me today, and I'll answer all your questions:
**Are You Packed Yet?**
Donna Harris, REALTOR®RE/MAX Austin Skylinewww.DonnaHomes.comDonna@DonnaHomes.comaustin-texas-homes-for-sale.com
Austin TX Real Estate
and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake … (4 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Compulsive Low Ballers Are Buyers on the Fence - 10/26/11 10:25 AM
The Austin TX real estate market is a really good market right now. It's not like much of the country where prices are down and slow to sell. If you're in a popular place in Austin TX, houses are selling fast, for good prices, and many times houses have multiple offers. There are times when buyers can take all the information I give them about a property and still make the uneducated offer to the sellers. Those offers don't typically fly. What do I mean by an "uneducated offer"? I mean, say a house is listed at $300,000 and when I … (8 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Buying a Dream House or Buying a Move-Up House? - 10/19/11 11:05 AM
When should you look for your Dream House? The Austin TX real estate market has many different price ranges in many different eclectic neighborhoods and communities. The average person moves every 6-7 years, which is up from 4 years just a few years ago. For the most part, when someone buys their first house, it's not going to have everything they want in a house. Most first time home buyers are typically in a lower end price point, and as they build equity in their first house and save money over the years, they can then do what we call "move … (7 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Real Estate Concerns Should Be Addressed Locally - Not Nationally - 10/18/11 09:59 AM
I was contacted by an Austin TX Home Buyer a couple of weeks ago to look at houses. After we talked about her getting approved for a mortgage and her time frame, I then received an email from her with some concerns that I would like to address. She says, "I'm dropping the search for a house because I believe the economy is way too unstable here." Here? In Austin TX? We have the second lowest unemployment behind Washington DC, and we were recently at the top of a list for Best Economy. She says, "I'm thinking we are in the … (58 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: If Rates Go Up - Buying Power Goes Down - Buying a House Today - 10/17/11 07:14 PM
Austin TX and the surrounding suburbs is a great place to buy, NOW! Why? A few days ago, I talked about how Interest Rates are Down, but I didn't explain it in price of affordability terms. What do I mean by that? I mean what you can afford today will be vastly different than what you might be able to afford next year if rates go up.For example, rates are about 4.25% right now. Some lenders are higher and some are lower, and it also depends on your credit scores and credit history, but on average, 4.25% is a good estimate. … (6 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Word of Mouth is Powerful - 09/02/11 02:44 PM
Relocation to Austin TX is huge for several reasons. Besides being at the top of so many lists, word of mouth is just as powerful. I have relocation buyers coming into town next week. I asked them why they chose Austin TX to relocate to. The response was, "We were on vacation in Costa Rico recently and it seemed like everyone we met was from Texas. No one had a bad thing to say about Texas, and they said if we were to move anywhere, it needed to be Austin because of what it has to offer, so we contacted you." … (7 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Real Estate Recovery - Austin TX - Economy Out Performs the Nation! - 08/06/11 08:20 PM
Real Estate Recovery - Austin TX Economy Keeps Out performing the Nation as a Whole!
I'm not too worried that the market lost 500 points a couple of days ago, because up against the worst national economy in decades, Austin TX is the best market in the country! Why? Several reasons...
The Austin TX foreclosure market is 1 in 1044 homes. Las Vegas? 1 in 60 homes... for all those buyers out there wanting to buy a foreclosure in Austin TX because they think it's going to be the best deal, think again...
According to Mark Sprague, Mission Mortgages' … (10 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Senna Hills Homes for Sale - Austin TX - Market Report - 06/17/11 01:33 PM
Senna Hills is starting to look like what a neighborhood should look like in today's market!! I think the sellers of Senna Hills in Austin TX are finally getting it! In January, I wrote a Market Report for Senna Hills for a summary of 2010. The basics of that report was that sellers were selling at a lower sales price percentage the shorter time their house was on the market. I thought that was backwards. We are now almost halfway through 2011 and it looks like things are turning around in Senna Hills. There have been 11 properties that have closed, … (3 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Is Your Goal To Look at Houses or to Buy a House? - 05/16/11 04:22 PM
I was with some buyers over the weekend who weren't sure about whether or not to offer on a house or to wait for more properties to come on the market and see what else might come available. This reminded me of a speech I use with many first-time home buyers, though it makes sense for the move-up/down buyer as well. You're not out to see every property that's available on the market. You're out to find a house you want to buy. If you're out to see every possible house out there, you must realize this is a continuous cycle. … (9 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: HUD Homes Still Require Originals in Blue Ink - You Are Playing Old School, HUD!! - 04/14/11 10:08 AM
Why does HUD still require originals and blue ink? This is getting ridiculous. As the real estate industry moves forward with being able to scan a clean contract into a PDF instead of faxing where the contracts shrink, in addition to many people using digital signatures and doing everything via email and phone, sometimes from out of state, why does HUD still require the contract to be in their office as signed originals with blue ink? Why are they scared to accept an email?
I submitted my online bid last Thursday. We found out first thing Friday morning that our bid … (5 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Getting Pre-APPROVED and not just Pre-Qualified - 02/09/11 10:05 AM
When buying a house in Austin TX, you need to be Pre-Approved for a Mortgage before looking at properties in person. This is the first step whether you're a first time home buyer or buying your fifth house. Notice that I used the term Pre-APPROVED and not pre-qualified...
What's the difference?
A pre-qualified buyer is someone who made a phone call to a mortgage professional, gave that person a few pieces of verbal information, and the mortgage person said you're pre-qualified.
A pre-APPROVAL means the mortgage person ran your credit, collected bank statements, W2's, and paycheck stubs, and ran numbers … (7 comments)
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austin tx homes for sale: Do I Need to Look at ALL the Houses on the Market Before Buying One? - 02/08/11 02:54 PM
There are a lot of Austin TX Homes for Sale. Does that mean you need to look at all of them before making a decision to buy something? Yes and No...
With today's technology, you're able to see all the houses you want online. You can map it out, see pictures, see virtual tours, see the tax information, see the school information... etc... you can see just about everything. You take this information and then drive neighborhoods to see what interests you the most. Things to consider would be proximity to work, schools, parks, shopping, restaurants and other places you would … (4 comments)
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Donna Harris, REALTOR®, CDPE & ASP - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes
Austin,
TX
More about me…
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
Address: 4611 Bee Caves Rd #200, Austin, TX, 78746
Office Phone: (512) 592-7127
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